Agriculture & Fisheries

While overshadowed by energy and mining investments, Papua New Guinea’s agricultural sector is a key earner of foreign currency and a primary employer for many of its citizens. The country’s fertile land makes the sector and its downstream processing and value-added spin-offs the most viable option for absorbing its growing workforce, while continuing to provide potential for the economy in the long term. The palm oil industry dominates the sector, accounting for two-thirds of all agriculture exports excluding the forestry and fisheries industries. While the smaller fisheries benefit the country by supplying local markets with fish and modest exports when their respective fisheries are healthy, the sector remains largely reliant upon the tuna trade. The government has allocated significant funding for agriculture development, which should help the industry become more cost competitive in the long run. Growth will come from several subsectors, including improvements in the cultivation of coffee and cocoa as a result of yield-boosting initiatives.

This chapter contains interviews with Pedro Celso, CEO, RD Tuna; and John Nightingale, Managing Director, Agmark.